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Other considerations

It is in your organisation's best interests to routinely publish as much information as possible about your commercial activities. Be mindful that some of the information you hold on sole traders could also constitute their personal information. This module assesses your awareness of other considerations relevant to managing and handling requests for commercial information. Read the “more information” section to give you further understanding of each question.

 

Good

  • You always proactively publish less sensitive commercial information about your organisation.
  • You always consider the request without reference to the requester's identity or motives.
  • You always consider whether the request is for environmental information.
  • You always consider how confidentiality clauses in contracts may interact with your FOIA obligations.
  • You always consider whether information is commercially sensitive at the time of the request.
  • You always consider whether requests about sole traders could also be for their personal information.
  • You always consider what would be an appropriate level of advice and assistance to offer requesters seeking commercial information.

Adequate

  • You sometimes proactively publish less sensitive commercial information about your organisation.
  • You sometimes consider the request without reference to the requester's identity or motives.
  • You sometimes consider whether the request is for environmental information.
  • You sometimes consider how confidentiality clauses in contracts may interact with your FOIA obligations.
  • You sometimes consider whether information is commercially sensitive at the time of the request.
  • You sometimes consider whether requests about sole traders could also be for their personal information.
  • You sometimes consider what would be an appropriate level of advice and assistance to offer requesters seeking commercial information.

Unsatisfactory

  • You rarely proactively publish less sensitive commercial information about your organsiation.
  • You rarely consider the request without reference to the requester's identity or motives.
  • You rarely consider whether the request is for environmental information.
  • You rarely consider how confidentiality clauses in contracts may interact with your FOIA obligations.
  • You rarely consider whether information is commercially sensitive at the time of the request.
  • You rarely consider whether requests about sole traders could also be for their personal information.
  • You rarely consider what would be an appropriate level of advice and assistance to offer requesters seeking commercial information.
1. Your proactive publication of less sensitive commercial information is… (optional)
More information

Routinely publish as much information as you can about contracts and outsourced services.Your website is the easiest way for most people to access the information you publish and this may reduce your workload. Our model publication scheme sets out the minimum information you must disclose. You should specify any fees you charge for information you proactively publish in your publication scheme. You should make these transparent, justify them and keep them to a minimum.

2. Your consideration of requests without reference to the requesters' identity or motives is... (optional)
More information

Anyone can make a request for information, regardless of who they are or why they want the information. For example, organisations can use FOI to obtain information for their commercial use. You should focus on whether the information is suitable for disclosure into the public domain, rather than the effects of providing the information to the individual requester.

3. Your consideration of whether the request is for environmental information is… (optional)
More information

You must handle requests for environmental information under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). You may refuse requests for commercially sensitive environmental information by relying on regulation 12(5)(e) of the EIR. You should be mindful however that the regulation is not a direct equivalent of section 43.

4. Your consideration of how confidentiality clauses interact with your FOIA obligations is… (optional)
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Public authorities cannot contract out of their statutory obligations under FOIA, and you should make your suppliers aware of this. When outsourcing public services, you should do so transparently and make third-party contractors aware of your obligations under FOIA, how they should assist you in these obligations and what will happen if they don’t. Before agreeing to any confidentiality clauses, you need to consider how any clauses may interact with your obligations under FOIA and the public interest in transparency and accountability. If the information in a confidentiality clause is not commercially sensitive, then section 43 does not apply.

5. Your consideration of the effect of the timing of the request is... (optional)
More information

The timing of a disclosure is of critical importance. You must apply section 43 based on the circumstances that exist within the timeframe you're required to initially respond to the request. Circumstances change, and with the passage of time, information which was exempt from disclosure may become eligible for release. However, it is not simply the case that the passage of time inevitably makes information less commercially sensitive. The extent to which its sensitivity is diminished depends on the nature of that information and context. For example, the sensitivity of procurement-related information could depend on when a contract is likely to come up for retendering.

6. Your consideration of whether requests about sole traders could also be for their personal information is... (optional)
More information

The UK GDPR applies to personal information relating to people acting as sole traders wherever they are individually identifiable and the information relates to them as a person rather than as the representative of a legal person. For example, a name and corporate email address clearly relates to a particular person and is their personal information. However, the content of any email using those details will not automatically be their personal information unless it includes information which reveals something about them or has an impact on them. You may refuse requests for personal information by relying on section 40 of the FOIA or regulation 13 of the EIR.

7. Your consideration of appropriate advice and assistance is... (optional)
More information

You should aim to be as helpful as is beneficial to requesters based on the request. Seek clarification if the request is unclear, offer advice to help them narrow requests for a broad range of information you can't comply with, and point them to relevant published information.